Reproductive Rights

Join NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Foundation and their coalition partners, Freedom of Choice Ohio and National Council of Jewish Women-Columbus Section, on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

I see that Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine wants to allow private employers to deny their workers access to birth control based on the bosses’ religious beliefs (“DeWine backs wider religious exemption,” Dispatch article, Saturday).

President Barack Obama will visit The Ohio State University campus on Saturday (5/5) where he will host a kick-off rally for his presidential campaign at the Jerome Schottenstein Center (Value City Arena). The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required, but RSVP’s are requested: https://my.barackobama.com/page/s/ohio-rally .

The outcry about the mandate to include contraception among covered preventive services tries to frame it as an assault on separation of church and state. As an ex-Catholic, I fully understand the church's position on contraception and abortion, and defend its right to preach its creed to the faithful.

Ohio Gov. Kasich and GOP legislators have taken off with a full-fledged anti-women agenda – from women’s health to voting rights to public education and other issues important to Ohio's middle class. Make your voice in opposition heard!

Meanwhile, our Democratic women in government have fought for a pro-women and pro-family agenda. Make your voice in support heard!

Hosts: Women of the Ohio House and Senate Democratic Caucuses and the Ohio Democratic Party.

The times, they are a'changin'

Lloyd Benston famously said to Dan Quayle, "Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy." And we say to John Kasich, "Governor, you are no Ted Strickland." In three short months, you have torn apart this proud state -- threatening every group that dares express an opinion that doesn't line up with your agenda.

Here's what the Bully on the Bus is up to:

Making teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other public employees the fall guys. Remember, immediately after the election, he said, “I am waiting for the teachers’ unions to take out full-page ads in all the major newspapers, apologizing for what they had to say about me during this campaign.” (Spingfield News-Sun) (Ironically, many union members voted GOP -- and now regret checking "Kasich" in the voting booth.)

Hiding budget cuts. Claiming to boost K-12 funding when schools actually will see cuts of 6.1 percent in the budget's first year and 4.7 percent in its second year. (Huffington Post)

Cutting programs for the poorest of the poor, vulnerable elderly, the handicapped while crowing about "protecting" the richest of the rich. As Ohio Rep. John Patrick Carney (D-Clintonville) told NBC4 in Columbus,"If they [nursing homes] are laying off 6,000 people, what are we going to do with respect to making sure the quality of care that the individual in those homes are getting?"

Taking away women's rights by banning abortions if there is evidence a fetus has a heartbeat -- which could be as early as 18 days after conception. (ABC News)

Disenfranchising voters. The Ohio Senate is considering a bill passed by the House that makes Ohio's existing requirements more stringent, blocking students, the working poor, the elderly, racial minorities, and people with disabilities -- who are twice as likely not to have the approved forms of ID. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The list goes on. And remember, Kasich took office in January! What is ahead?

Progressives cannot take this lying down. As Ted Strickland said in a March 19 speech, It's time to fight. now -- and the next two years.

Think it won't hurt you?

Reliable sources tell UAPA that the City Council is already contemplating how to make up the approximately $110,000 less that Kasich's budget proposal will mean for Upper Arlington. Not much? Right? But what about the $2 million to $4 million annually from estate taxes that will be gone if Kasich and his cronies have their way? (Our information was confirmed in the March 27 Dispatch, " 'Hypothetically, if they both go away, what are the ways to restore our revenues?' asked Wade Steen, an Upper Arlington councilman.")

That will definitely mean an increase in INCOME TAX for each of us. What a way to take a responsibility off a priviledged group and load it onto the entire middle class! (Maybe Kasich is protecting the $500,000 in bonuses he got from Lehman Brothers.)

Remember, shortages roll downhill. When the state won't pay, cities, towns, libraries, school districts and public colleges and university students must. (And that means YOU.)

Join in! Ohio Walk for Choice

Independent national grassroots effort in support of women's rights!

Saturday , February 26,
Noon, march from Wexner Center Plaza, North High Street at 15th Avenue, to the Ohio Statehouse (approximately 3 miles)OR 2 p.m., rally at the Statehouse
Speakers, music and activities advocating for women’s rightsDetails

Fight against the Congressional “Smith Bill,” (H.R. Bill 3), the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which would end comprehensive health insurance and the legality of an abortion in life-threatening pregnancies. The “Pitts Bill” (H.R. Bill 358) to ban abortion coverage in state-based health insurance established under the new health care law. And the “Pence Bill” (H.R. Bill 217) to remove the Title X Family Planning Program and preventative care, including annual exams, cancer screenings, contraceptive services, and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections – services which make up 97 percent of Planned Parenthood’s funding in Ohio.

In Ohio, there is the “Heartbeat Bill,” as well as House Bills 7 and 78, which seek to place laws against later-term abortions. House Bill 79 to prohibit abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered by the state, and House Bill 63 and Senate Bill 8, both posing further restrictions upon minors attempting to judicially bypass parental consent for an abortion. Read more.

This is truly an emergency for Planned Parenthood and women's health. Anti-choice leaders in the House forced a vote on $317 million for Title X (aid for family planning programs) that denies Planned Parenthood health centers every dime of $75 million in federal funding. Without that funding, many low-income people would lose access to their only source of basic health care.

Some pundits predict this effort will die in the Senate. But we have to make sure.

Call now and tell Ohio's Republican Sen. Rob Portman to vote NO. You can reach him at his Washington office, 202-224-3353, Columbus office, 614-469-6774, or by email.

What Planned Parenthood does

You may not realize the range of care that Planned Parenthood provides. The huge majority of clients turn to them for birth control (to actually avert the need for abortions), cancer screenings, HIV testing, and other lifesaving care. For many (including people that you know who have no or inadequate insurance coverage), Planned Parenthood clinics are the only source for these services.

The consequences of passing this bill are clear — and they would be devastating. More women would have unintended pregnancies. Cancer would develop, undiagnosed, in countless women. There is no doubt: cutting off millions of women from care they have no other way to afford places them at risk of sickness and death.

Speak out now — demand that Portman vote NO.

Read more: New York Times, "Planned Parenthood and its supporters are working to bolster defenses in the Senate. They hope that the Title X program - including a share for their group - will be restored as the two sides of Congress compromise on a spending bill. But supporters like Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a leader of the abortion rights caucus, fear that protection of family planning could 'get lost in the larger issue of the budget.'"